Support comes in for NGO’s to manufacture sanitary napkins
Pune, February 15, 2018: With an intention to promote menstrual hygiene and support production of sanitary napkins at a cheaper cost Electronica Finance Ltd. (EFL), the leading finance company known for providing quick loans to MSME’s has partnered with several Non-Government Organisation (NGOs) under their project MEETA. Pune’s Seva Sahayog is the first such NGO to receive financial aid from EFL recently.
Shailesh Ghatpande, Operational Director, Seva Sahyog, along with his colleagues Ajay Patni, Aarati Mahajan, Vinita Lele, Madhuri Nagras were present on the occasion when Ms.Shilpa Pophale, MD of EFL handed over a cheque of Rs 6 lac providing financial assistance to Seva Sahayog. Also, another NGO, EARTH from Jiwati Taluka in Chandrapur District will be provided with financial support to promote menstrual hygiene.
MEETA is one of the various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects which was initiated to strengthen women empowerment by spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene amongst women from rural, semi-urban & tribal areas of Maharashtra.
Speaking on the occasion Ms.Pophale expressed, “While undertaking our earlier CSR project UDAAN which is an initiative to empower the girl child through education, we realized the various facts and realities about girl’s education in India which is directly proportional to lack of menstrual hygiene. Hence MEETA was launched with an objective to ensure easy access of high quality sanitary napkins in rural and tribal areas and to propagate safe disposal of sanitary napkins in an environment friendly manner.”
Ms.Pophale further highlighted on current statistics that states 23% of girls drop out of school when they start menstruating in India. 88% of menstruating women in India do not have access to sanitary products during their period. Almost 1 in every 4-adolescent girl in the country quits school when she hits puberty.
EFL has developed a unique model of Social Entrepreneurship, wherein the company will provide financial assistance for procuring the sanitary pad manufacturing machines for respective NGO’s. Along with that EFL will also provide finance for raw material and for salaries of women employees for the first year. The sanitary pads developed through this initiative will be provided to girls and women in under privileged area at subsidized rate.
EFL has so far empowered more than 200 girls from Pune & Kolhapur under Project UDAAN. The company also supports ‘Niwant Andh Mukt Vikasalay’ for the upliftment of visually challenged girls, to make them self-reliant and confident in all walks of life.
